Magnetic support means for a covering



A ril-23, 1968 c. s. BUSH, JR

MAGNETIC SUPPORT MEANS FOR A COVERING Filed May 6, 1965 6 M m L, 5? J T. N l? 4 VI 4 m" mm m NW .6 Y \W/ B i y w Patented Apr. 23, 1968 3,378,974 MAGNETIC SUPPORT MEANS FER A. COVERING Clinton G. Bush, In, Qentre Island, N.Y., assignor to Elton Industries, 1116., New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed May 6, I965, Ser. No. 453,626 2 (Claims. (Cl. 52-433) ABSTRAGI 0F THE DECLOSURE An assembly which defines at least part of the interior space of a room. The assembly includes a support means and a covering means which covers the support means and which has an exterior surface which is directed toward the interior of the room and an inner surface directed toward the support means. A magnetic means engages the support means and the inner surface of the covering means to mount the latter on the support means with the magnetic force of the magnetic means. This magnetic means includes, for example, a ferrous sheet engaging the support means and a plurality of permanent magnets which engage and remain by their magnetism attached to the ferrous sheet, the covering means including a plurality of tiles which respectively have inner surfaces forming the inner surface of the cover means and it is these inner surfaces which respectively carry the permanent magnets. The inner surfaces of the tile lie flush against the ferrous sheet so as to be mechanically positioned by the latter, and in addition the tiles are respectively recessed at their inner surface to receive the permanent magnets in these recesses, and these permanent magnets have exposed surfaces flush with the inner surfaces of the tile, so that the tiles while mechanically positioned in space by the surface of the ferrous sheet are held against the latter by the magnetic structure.

The present invention relates to assemblies which define part of the interior surface of a room or the like.

Thus, the structure of the present invention is adapted to be used for forming the inner surface structure of a wall or ceiling of a room.

At the present time it is known, for example, to construct the interior surface of a wall or ceiling of a room from a veneer in the form of suitable tiles or sheets, and this veneer is conveniently fixed in position through the use of a suitable adhesive, although it is also known to use fasteners such as nails or the like for this purpose. In emphasizing the expression tiles it is to be understood that the term includes plywood panels, acoustical tiles, and the like.

With these conventional constructions there are great inconveniences involved in the use of the adhesive or fastening means resulting not only from the cost of the materials themselves but also from the labor required to apply the fastening means so as to fasten the veneer at the wall or ceiling of the room.

It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide for a room or the like an assembly which will define part of the inner surface thereof and which avoids the use of adhesive or other fastening devices such as nails or the like.

In particular, its is an object of the present invention to provide for a room or the like an assembly which will define part of the inner surface thereof and which can be placed in position very rapidly and with a minimum of inconvenience so that the costs of mounting the assembly of the invention in position are very low compared to conventional constructions.

Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a structure which, while it can be very quickly and easily applied by relatively unskilled personnel, nevertheless is quite inexpensive.

Also, it is an object of the invention to provide a structure which permits the arrangement of tiles or the like to be changed at any time with a minimum of inconvenience.

In particular, the invention involves providing for the support means at the wall or ceiling of a room a covering means which has an outer surface directed toward the interior of the room and an inner surface directed toward the support means. In accordance with the present invention magnetic means are operatively connected to the support means as well as to the inner surface of the covering means for magnetically holding the latter in its position covering the support means so as to define at least part of the inner surface of the room.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, which form part of the application and in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective illustration of part of a room which may be provided with the structure of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary front elevation of part of an assembly of the invention which defines part of the interior surface of a room;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken along lines 33 of FIG. 2 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary front elevation of another embodiment of an assembly according to the invention, FIG. 4 showing only one tile so as to illustrate the structure behind the adjoining tiles;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary section taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 4- in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional elevation illustrating another embodiment of an assembly according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional elevation of yet another embodiment of a structure which is adapted to form part of a ceiling; and

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view of the structure of FIG. 7 taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7 in the direction of the arrows.

Referring to FIG. 1, part of -a room of a building is illustrated therein, this room having the walls 10, the floor 12 and the ceiling 14. This ceiling 14 is provided with a veneer covering made up of the tiles 16 which are held in position with the assembly of the present invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the structure of the invention as applied to a wall of a room, but it is to be understood that this structure could equally well be used for a ceiling such as the ceiling 14. Thus, referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, it will be seen that the assembly includes a support means 18 formed by the unfinished wall of the room, although this may also be the unfinished ceiling. A covering means 20 takes the form of a plurality of tiles 22 made of any suit able material and located next to each other in the manner which is apparent from FIGS. 2 and 3. This covering means 20 has an outer surface which is visible in FIG. 2 and which is directed toward the interior of the room and an inner surface which is directed toward the support means 18.

In accordance with the present invention a magnetic means is provided for magnetically mounting the covering means 20 on the support means 13 so as to hold the covering means 20 in position on the support means 18 by the magnetic force of the magnetic means. This magnetic means, in the illustrated example, includes a magnetizable sheet 24 made, for instance, of any suitable ferrous material and taking the form of a flexible sheet of metal which can be quickly and easily attached to the wall 18 in any suitable way as by simply being nailed thereto. In addition to the ferrous sheet 24, the magnetic means includes a plurality of permanent magnets 26, which are respectively fixedly carried by the tiles 22 at the inner surfaces thereof. As is particularly apparent from FIG. 3, the tile 22 is recessed at its inner surface to receive the permanent magnet 26 in such a Way that it has an exposed surface which is flush with the inner surface of the tile 22, and in this way the inner surface of the tile 22 will lie flush against the sheet 24 while the exposed surface of the permanent magnet 26 will also lie flush against the sheet 24, and through the magnetic force of the permanent magnets 26 as well as the ferrous material of the sheet 24 the tiles 22 will remain in the position in which they are placed.

It is, therefore, apparent that with the structure of the invention, once the sheet 24 is nailed onto the support means 18, which can be done very quickly and conveniently since no accuracy is required for this operation, the tiles can simply be placed in position very quickly and rapidly. It is unnecessary to deal with any material such as adhesives, nails, or the like, so that with the simple and inexpensive construction of the invention a suitable veneer covering can be quickly and easily mounted in position. Moreover, there is no inconvenience involved either in removing the covering or in changing the positions of the tiles, so that the disadvantage resulting from the permanence of conventional manners of fastening veneer coverings in position is also avoided with the present invention.

Of course, the structure of the invention does not necessarily require a sheet 24 mounted on the support means 18 and permanent magnets 26 respectively carried by the tiles 22.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, for example, there is shown a construction where the support means formed by the wall 18 is simply provided with separate strips 28 of ferrous sheet metal which can also be quickly and easily attached to the wall 18 as by being nailed thereto. In this case also the wall 18 may be an unfinished ceiling, if desired. Now the tiles 22' which may be substantially identical to the tiles of FIGS. 2 and 3 can be arranged so that permanent magnets 26 engage the ferrous strips 28, and this construction also will serve to mount the tiles 22 in position without requiring continuous sheets 24. Thus, by the use of the separate strips 28 it is possible to render the handling of the magnetic means much easier as Well as to save a considerable amount of material. In the case of FIGS. 4 and the tiles 22' are formed not only with a recess to fixedly receive the permanent magnet 26 but also with a very shallow groove extending across the inner surface of each tile so as to accommodate the strip 28 so that the tiles 22' can rest directly against the wall 18 While receiving the strips 28 in grooves of the tile. The permanent magnets 26 are attached to the tiles in recesses thereof which communicate with these grooves.

Referring to FIG. 6, the structure shown therein includes tiles 30 which also form a covering means and which have an inner surface directed toward a support means formed by a wall '18. However, in this case it is the wall 18 which carries the permanent magnets 2.6, and the inner surfaces of the tiles carry ferrous sheets 32 fastened in any suitable way to the tile and being in the form of sheets which cover the entire inner surface of the tiles or in the form of strips which extend across the inner surface of the tiles. These strips extend into suitable recesses of the tiles at the inner surfaces thereof, as is apparent from FIG. 6, so that in this way the magnets 26 will also be received in recessed portions of the strips 32 which can lie flush against the wall 18 at the spaces which surround the permanent magnets 26. With the structure of FIG. 6 the strips or sheets 32 can be joined with the tiles at the plant where the tiles are manufactured, so that it is unnecessary for the ultimate user of the structure to encounter the inconvenience of attaching the sheets or strips 32 to the tiles 3%.

In the embodiment of the invention which is illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, there is illustrated a plurality of ceiling beams 40 which are made of metal and which may take the form of suitable I-beams, for example, these beams 43 being made of a ferrous metal so that they are magnetic. In accordance with the invention a plurality of magnetic blocks 42 are simply placed against the underside of the beams 40 so as to be held thereagainst by the force of their magnetism, and these blocks 42 are arranged at any suitable intervals along the undersurface of the beams 49', as is apparent from FIG. 8.

The covering means 44 of this embodiment takes the form of a laminated sheet having an outer decorative layer 46 made of any suitable paper, fabric, plastic, or the like, and includes an inner layer 48 made of a ferrous metal in the form of a foil which is highly flexible. All that need be done with this embodiment of the invention is to unroll the laminated sheet 44 so that its ferrous layer 48 engages the magnets 42 to be magnetically held thereby in position beneath the beams 40. In this simple way a ceiling covering is provided with the structure of the invention. It is to be understood, however, that covering means 44 may also take the form of large sheets similar to sheet rock.

What is claimed is:

1. An assembly including support means, covering means for covering said support means, said covering means being formed by a plurality of tiles, said covering means having an outer surface and an inner surface directed toward said support means, and magnetic means engaging said support means and said inner surface of said covering means for mounting the latter on said support means with the magnetic force of said magnetic means, said magnetic means including a plurality of ferrous strips carried by said support means and a plurality of permanent magnets engaging and carried by said strips, and said inner surfaces of said tiles of said covering means being formed, respectively, with recesses in which said permanent magnets are situated for fixing said tiles to said permanent magnets so that by engaging said strips said magnets mount said tiles on said support means, said inner surfaces of said tiles also being formed with grooves extending across said tiles and receiving said ferrous strips, said support means including a wall which carries said strips and said tiles engaging said wall, so that said ferrous strips determine the positions of said tiles in engagement with said wall and serve in part to mechanically support said tiles, to provide thereby a support in addition to the magnetic support thereof.

2. An assembly including support means, covering means for covering said support means, said covering means being formed by a sheet material, said covering means having an outer surface and an inner surface directed toward said support means, and magnetic means engaging said support means and said inner surface of said covering means for mounting the latter on said support means with the magnetic force of said magnetic means, said support means being formed by a plurality of ferrous ceiling beams and said magnetic means including a r 5 plurality of permanent magnets engaging said beams and carried thereby at downwardly directed surfaces of said beams exclusively by magnetic attraction, said covering means including a laminated sheet having an inner ferrous layer engaging said permanent magnets and supported thereby so as to support said sheet in a position covering said beams and held thereon by said permanent magnets and said ferrous sheet which together form said magnetic means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Cirkin 46-236 Stein 4619 X Sindell. Luther 525 18 X Bradsby 5227 Wise 52-506 Koritz.

FOREIGN PATENTS 1961 Great Britain.

JOHN E. MURTAGH, Primary Examiner. 

